FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Gang,

Lord willing and weather permitting, I have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity next week to hear Andrea Bocelli perform with the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City.  I can’t wait.

I’ve been listening to more of Bocelli’s music so I’m more familiar with his songs and discovered this video.  I’ve watched it (and shared it) countless times.  I seldom finish it without my eyes getting all wet.  Turn it up.

And yes – I do realize this is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  My loving this video and sharing this video is not an endorsement of the Mormon faith at all.  I am a Christian, not a Mormon.  Nevertheless, this is one of the most beautiful, inspiring renditions of the Lord’s Prayer I’ve ever heard in my life.  (and if by chance you feel a bit disappointed towards the end like I did, hang in there … you’ll know what I mean!)

Multi-Generational Worship.

This is a buzz word these days.  We keep discussing this at our church, and how we desire to create it.  I have news for you, it’s not that easy.

We’re in the midst of ongoing, challenging,  yet fulfilling discussions about our worship culture, and we always come back to these questions:

What is “multi-generational worship”?
How do we define a “culture of worship”?

So I’m reaching out to you, my online friends.  I’d love to hear from worship leaders, pastors, and non-church leaders.  Congregants.  Moms.  Dads.  Kids.  Youth.

At the bottom of this post is a “Add a Comment” box.  How would you define “multi-generational worship” or “blended worship”.  I’d suggest checking the box that enables you to get an email reply if someone else comments on your post so that the dialog can keep going for days.

Go for it.  (Facebook friends – I’d be honored and grateful if you’d leave your comments on the blog, and not on Facebook (or both) …. by leaving them on the blog, we keep all of the conversation in one place.)

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Gang,

For all of you worship leaders … when was the last time you got off the platform?  For all you church goers – when was the last time you saw your leader off-stage?

I’ve been off the platform for the past two Sundays at SSCC.

Two Sundays ago my wife and I took the weekend (sans kids, thanks to my mom!) and went away to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary together.  I tuned into our worship services via our SSCCLive.Com internet broadcast and enjoyed seeing my friend Russ Hutto lead the worship.  You could say I was truly “off” that Sunday, except for about 15 minutes of emailing and texting when our scheduled drummer for the youth service was a no-show.

Yesterday I was back at work, but off the stage.  My friend Shannon Lewis led worship for us. (read his recap of the service and the setlist on his blog) It’s so funny to hear how many people come up and say “you’re off today”?

I believe that as leaders, we have a responsibility to raise up and empower other leaders.  As we work to duplicate ourselves and multiply our efforts we have to step aside and let other leaders flourish.

This Sunday, Shannon’s leading in our main sanctuary gave me the ability to do several things:

1.  give him a chance to lead and bless our congregation with his gifts (we all lead differently, and the diversity is good)
2.  gave me a chance to mingle more with our people as they came in and connect with them relationally
3.  gave me a chance to worship in the congregation and get the much-needed perspective of what that’s like
4.  gave me the chance to observe the culture of worship in each of our venues (Tiny Town, Kid Jam Clubhouse, Youth Rooftop)

Being off the stage brings so much perspective.  From the congregation I can see how the audio mix is sounding (great job, Ben!), I can observe how people are engaging, how our lighting feels when it’s adjusted in the room, what other distractions may be occurring that we miss from the stage, etc.

Some of you are in a church where you have nobody else to lead worship.  It’s you, or it’s a CD.  I’d like to encourage you to really pray and ask God to bring in more leaders.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see who on your team may be that next leader.  Begin to mentor them.  Take the “you lead with me, I lead with you, you lead” approach.

My goal is to be completely off-platform 2-3 times per quarter.  I typically adhere to that unless I have a very specific reason for not doing it.

How about you?

(this recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week)

Here’s a recap from St. Simons Community Church for this Sunday, August 7, 2011.  As always, this setlist recap is a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event that happens over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Today I enjoyed welcoming our two newest additions to the praise team – Beth Cox (vocals) and her husband, Allan (trumpet).  It was awesome having them serving together.

Our walk-in was an older favorite, “Love the Lord“.  We did the bulk of our praise and worship right at the beginning of the service today as we had a packed Sunday with 50+ minutes of teaching/speaking time.

The opening set included Come Thou Fount, Jesus Saves, and I Exalt Thee.

One thing that was cool during “I Exalt Thee” was as our band backed off and just let the people sing out, we had our tech team actually RAISE the house lights up a bit – the idea was that our darker, more intimate setting was for personal worship, and as we began to change from “I Exalt Thee” to “we exalt Thee”, it became a corporate cry and I wanted our congregation to not only hear one another, but also SEE on another.

I honestly can say that in both services I could hear a noticeable difference as we did that.

Our closer was “I Will Never Be”, a beautiful old Hillsong ballad.  The teaching time went well past our cutoff, so we essentially sang this as people dismissed.

Tomorrow night (Monday) I’m headed down with my wife and our Tech Director (and his wife) to see Hillsong United in Jacksonville, FL.  Should be a cool time!

Hey Gang,

I’d like to kickoff a new series here on the blog:  “The Calling Series”.

I frequently get asked about how I was called into ministry.  How did I know what I wanted to do with my life?  What influenced my decisions to study music, specifically, Theory/Composition, Piano Performance, and Production?  How did I hear from God when I answered a call to a specific church of ministry position?

I’ve struggled with the concept of this series because I don’t really want it to be about me … I’m pretty sure folks aren’t that interested in my mini-autobiography.  At the same time, because I get asked the questions so often … especially from youth who are thinking about going to colleges, worship leading schools, etc., I hope that the story of my path will help others.

Everyone may hear God’s voice and His call in a different way – for me, it’s not always the same way.

I’ll get into that as we progress into the series.  In the meantime, whether you’re a worship leader, pastor, volunteer in church ministry, or a lay leader … how did you answer your call?  How did you choose the current path that you are on?  (yes, even if it’s not ministry-related).

I hope you’ll comment below and join the discussion.

For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon